2023-10-21: Her Intentions
- Log: Her Intentions
- Cast: Lily Keil, Citan Uzuki
- Where: Sielje City
- Date: October 21, 2023
- Summary: Lily, having recovered from the strange experience in Guild Galad, is deep in research as the Wolves prepare for a foray into Shae Ving. But what of Sharon Wyatt?
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Sielje City is a wonder and a marvel, a strange place in a stranger location. It can't be seen from below, because it is in truth half a dimension over--and this is a safer place for some of the experiments that take place there at the school.
It also has a very notable library, and Lily Keil has managed to negotiate entry into at least the regular stacks, where she is seated at a table with a number of books on dimensional magic. The problem before her has thus far eluded her, but not indefinitely--the use of teleportation circles and gems must be the key.
But her Gear is down below, too, docked at Sielje's teleporter, in preparation for a journey back into Shae Ving.
She has some paper out, and a pen, taking notes in the ancient Zeboim language as she goes, a security measure she has not yet stopped taking.
She is recovered in full from the battle some time ago; Sielje doesn't even know about her transformations.
That's for the best.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Without question, it is for the best.
The chances Citan Uzuki has had to travel to Sielje have been few and far between. Though they may both occupy, in a sense, a place in the sky -- one wandering and one half a dimension displaced -- Sielje and Shevat do not have much contact with one another, and, for that matter, Solaris and Sielje rather... less, one might say.
Sielje's neutral nature has seen it take the backstage against many events of the last few hundred years, and that includes the ongoing tensions between Shevat and Solaris. Though, sometimes he wonders if that stance might eventually shift.
This is a question best left to the wizards of Sielje and the elders of Shevat, however.
"I must say," Citan says, approaching the table where Lily sits surrounded by books still freshly plucked from Sielje's shelves, "It is not terribly often that I find myself in a library this extensive! Nor have you been idle, I see!" He readjusts his glasses, looking about the place he stands. To find one of this age and size that has been well-tended for so long and survived at least one major cataclysm is a rarity across both worlds. It is rather more common to find them in disrepair. He returns his attention to her, studying her, nearly.
Her intention is to return to Shae Ving, as if something might be found there. About herself? Or Leon?
Or the nature of Zeboim?
"We will have some time yet," he continues, folding his arms over his chest, "so there is no need to hurry yourself. I am afraid that their maintenance is never, ah, particularly timely. Or at least, it has not been so in my experience!" Perhaps it is simply because Sielje runs on a different schedule than most. "If haste becomes necessary, however, I believe I can 'pull out the stops', as it were. All of that aside..." His gaze traces over a few of the spines he can see from this angle. "...have you had any luck, Lily?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily has always had thoughts on Sielje; she wondered, long ago, if she could try to study there, when she knew of her abilities. Even in Ignas, the school's legend was known. But it was not to be; she learned in secret, and learned things not taught at such a school.
There's something almost nostalgic about being here... Nostalgic for a world that never was. But at the same time, she pays less attention to political machinations than Citan. Nations are to be avoided where possible on the world stage, for her.
"True," Lily says of the library. "I'm working on cracking the matter of teleportation. If I can weave the spells in sequence in advance, that's an easier approach--but space-displacing the spell in the first place so that I don't have to find an extant circle at the other side..."
It would be heflpful.
As he studies her, she looks down at her books--but in truth, there's not that many notes taken. Because, as Citan says it's unnecessary to hurry...
"...No," Lily says. "I've seen how they do it; it should be possible to replicate the effect. But I'm distracted."
"How do you focus, when you have memory of a whole other world? When you remember another person's life as clearly as your own, and know it's gone?"
"...The things Sharon Wyatt knew trouble me. The things that... I knew."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
There are only a few places where Solaris' reach doesn't extend in Filgaia. Shevat, of course. The Veruni enclaves, if not the human cities within the control zones. Hyadean colonies where humans were not tolerated. And...
The most they have ever been able to do in Sielje is keep an eye on it. Perhaps if they had realized how much trouble the wizards would have proven down the line, he's thought before, they might have moved more decisively in the past. In the end, it's another potential thorn in the side for a certain old friend, he considers.
"Teleportation? That is a difficult technique, I have heard," he says, reaching over to pick up one of the tomes and flip through its pages. "There are wizards who can manage such spells, but it appears to require years, if not decades of study... and yes, a destination magic circle," he finishes, glancing up at her from a particular page. "...Crest Sorcery is not my area of expertise but I did happen to peruse a few books on the Symbological theory of the same when I was younger and the concept is, I understand, similar in scope." He pauses.
"And your aim is to... replicate such with your Ether? Hmm. Yet... you have, ah... come close with that focus of yours."
He means the pendant.
But she says she could 'replicate' the effect and he pauses rather more pregnantly this time. "You... do not mean the maintenance of our Gears, do you, Lily?"
No, of course not.
"That is... certainly a difficult question," Citan says to her, closing the book he had been paging through and setting it back on the stack carefully. "And not one, I am afraid, I have personal experience regarding. Yet... you would not be the first to experience similarly, I should think... We have many with such experiences in our midst, it seems..." He glances away, up at the ceiling.
But whatever it is that he's thinking, he does not speak it aloud: instead, once his attention returns to Lily, he asks of her, "What is it that she knew that troubles you?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"It is. But since Grahf used it against us, I've been trying to figure a way to use it myself." A pause. "...Yes. There are gems that can shortcut the process, but only to specified locations. Symbology seems to think the same."
She nods. "That's right," she says. "I suppose if I use the focus... Hmm. It's not quite the same, but its time dilation effects..."
Pause. "Our what?" She stops. "...No, sorry. I'm just distracted all around, I suppose."
They do have a number with other experiences. "I always wondered if it was like that, but if I had these memories within to be awakened..." She trails off.
"Some of it is just the dissonance between what she knew and what I know now; little, basic things. I remember old cities that felt new; I remember people who are long gone."
"...But I also remember creating weapons. Some of the things we saw in Shae Ving--I remember designing them, or similar things at least. And... There are things I know about Zeboim projects that are dangerous. Things about some of our friends, for instance, that I have to decide whether to share or not."
"Like Azoth. I can't go into detail, but... I know about what he was."
"I remember Kim Kasim," she elaborates.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"True... he does possess that power as well," Citan muses, rubbing his chin. Neither is Grahf a Symbology practitioner, unless he has significantly missed his mark.
"Teleporation Orbs and the like, yes. Inscribed with particular crest mark combinations, unless I am mistaken?" he says, crinkling his forehead like a man wracking his mind for the specifics for a moment. "Though I cannot say which ones!"
Though it seems likely that Wing is involved. It just seems the most logical one of the four.
She had not entirely been tracking the subject of the conversation, it should seem. "No, it is no matter," Citan says, shaking his head. "Just a small joke on my part, I am afraid. ...Then, you are attempting to replicate what you saw Grahf attempt." And likely at least one elder Symbologist, though that was an encounter that Citan himself had not been present for -- and a different practice of spellcraft besides.
It's the dissonance between her memories that plagues her, she says. Yes, and of course it would: any person can experience a sort of trip backwards should they find themselves taken by a flash of memory, and even a step a mere decade in the past can strip away any illusions regarding precisely how much time has progressed in the period since. A memory that lies thousands of years back makes the return trip far more staggering for the changes and distance witnessed. And they may be fresh memories indeed, for Lily now remembers them for the first time.
"Hmm..." Citan muses. "Yours is a considerable burden, it should seem. A truth spoken carelessly is crueler than a lie spoken out of compassion. At least, such is my thinking." He glances upwards for a moment, as if in reflection himself, only to shake his head and sigh. "...And this is to assume her memories are objective, at that." He looks at her a touch sharply. "I would be surprised if they were. I do not think there is anything that lives and breathes that has objective memories. Rather, we are all subjective to our perspective, however we might attempt otherwise..."
But she says she knows what Azoth was.
And she says that she remembers the man called Kim Kasim.
"...The same after whom they named Kasim City. The so-called 'genius researcher'," Citan says, after a moment's consideration. "Nor was that the only place his name has came up." It has been mentioned in numerous old fragments they've unearthed, often from equally ancient ruins. "Is 'Kim' not what Emeralda calls Fei?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Yes," Lily says, "That's my understanding as well. Crest Sorcery is intricate, despite being based around four types of Ley. I don't entirely understand it."
Wing probably, though. They are green, too.
Yes, a certain elder Symbologist was also able--but Lily can't use Symbology. "There are many powers Grahf has that, if I could master, we could have a chance against him. Or against Krelian, for that matter. ...I need more power, Citan. I can't protect the others with this much."
But the dissonance...
"Yes," Lily says. "There's much I know, now; I could spend my time creating machinery, with the things I remember now, if I could only acquire the facilities. But..." She frowns.
"You're right," she says. "They're from only one perspective. I shouldn't assume they're all accurate, or free of bias. She, or I, certainly had those."
But, "Right. He was a genius--at least, she thought so. She considered him a rival, more than a 'friend', but they were on decent terms, until he disappeared."
A pause. "Yes, it is. And the truth is... In my memory, he 'looks' just like Fei, too."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He frowns when she says that she needs more power -- that what she has isn't enough.
"I myself, as I am, was not able to stand against them either," he agrees.
But he adds: "...Still, is it necessary to protect everyone by one's own self?"
It's a rhetorical question, to be certain, but he has a particular point of rhetoric to make as it were.
From a certain point of view, Citan can sense a particular kinship with the long-gone and infamous Sharon Wyatt. Yet, at the same time... "I see. So you feel as if you might be able to replicate what she had done. If we were to find such facilities in Shae Ving, then..." His gaze shifts from Lily, to her stacks of books, to what notes she has taken. "It is interesting," he says. "When you speak of her, I mean," he says, his gaze lifting as she explains some of the views of the Sharon of eld. "Does it feel as if you are the one experiencing such things in your memories?"
Kim Kasim had looked just like Fei does, Lily says. Or at least, that's the impression she gets from Sharon's memories.
"...Is that so? I see. That is... quite a coincidence."
He knows that it is almost certainly not a coincidence. Almost certainly not.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"..." To do it by herself. Is that necessary? Lily frowns, looking down as she does. "The enemy has to be defeated," she says. "One way or another. If we can do it together that's... probably fine. But we couldn't, before. Maybe I'll be the difference, next time."
She's reluctant, to engage with that point.
"I'm not sure I should," Lily admits. "But I think I can. I'd like to test it. Making such weapons and loosing them on the world would be irresponsible, but what if we were able to match some of Solaris's technology? It might be the key to victory."
Then, the question of her... Lily nods. "I do. It feels like 'my' memories--like I have a set of them. When I look down at myself, sometimes I'm surprised I can walk. I remember each of her memories as if I had been there."
"For better, and for worse."
A coincidence... "It may be," Lily says. "I couldn't be sure. He's spoken of experiences from other lives, but..."
"The idea that we traveled in the same circles five thousand years ago? I don't know if I believe in that kind of 'fate'."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"..."
He, himself, doesn't say anything immediately.
It's only at length that Citan speaks. "...I see. Then, let us hope that next time shall be different." Not that she, specifically, might be the key to tipping the balance -- rather, instead, that perhaps the next time they face those who have bested them before, they might prevail.
"Ah--" He seems, if anything, a little startled. "Perhaps, it may be best to leave such things to theory alone?" Citan suggests, fidgeting a moment with his glasses, possibly regretting having brought up such a line of thought in the first place. But then, she might have overheard his comment about a particular Gear occupied by a disgraced Ethos bishop -- it's easy to create a weapon and far harder to know to what end it will be used. "I think, rather, we might see if such things might be utilized and then... consider our options," he offers, seemingly mulling the whole of the matter over.
They're her memories, she says. Her own.
To this, he offers nothing but to furrow his forehead and nod, as if this were another thing he were considering in greater detail. "So I recall... that Veruni woman who had claimed to know her had said something similar." He is reminded of a discussion between a pair of genetic engineers a year or two ago. Hackman's disease. In an advanced case, of course the patient wouldn't--
But this is not what he brings up to Lily again. Not when he can't be certain he's correct, or even headed in anything approaching the right direction.
It's the talk of Fei and Kim that prompts him to speak again. "Perhaps. Perhaps so. Yet, the reach of fate can be long, and there are few who can escape its grasp," he remarks, shaking his head. "And we know by now that Fei is no 'ordinary' young man."
Fate... shall do as it will with him, more than any other.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Different. Yes. That's not the same as her having the power--but... it's the same, either way, isn't it? It should be. Part of Lily is disquieted by that, but the rest of her can easily overrule that part for now. "Yes. What's important is the group, not any one member's contributions individually."
But he's startled and--"Hmm. Yes, that's true. No sense in using the resources and loosing more weapons on the world that we won't actually use. But I do want to know if it's possible--if it opens up our options. I'm not seriously considering starting a factory for now, at least."
The Veruni woman... Yue, it had been. "Yes..."
She doesn't read minds; she doesn't know what he's not saying. Instead, "True. If anyone could gather up the 'fates' of others around him... It would be Fei. He's done it before, if what we learned about the Metal Demon War is to be believed."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He does not respond immediately. But eventually, he does incline his head in agreement. "Indeed..." Citan echoes, as if he had something else on his mind altogether.
Perhaps his reaction to the subject of what she intends in the depths of Shae Ving suggests where it had gone towards in the first place: what the mind, or something akin to it, of a genius like Sharon Wyatt might recreate in the atelier of that well-preserved military complex.
And not to mention what such a creation might do to the world, or rather, what the world might do with it. Certain weapons are prohibited by the Treaty of Iscariot, yes, but that only applies so long as the nations opt to not secretly subvert the treaty -- or, for that matter, have signed in the first place. There are after all, certain nations which have never deigned to sign treaties...
What can he do but nod, as Lily puts the matter so plainly? "Yes... if that is the truth, then both what had been and what passes now... Perhaps this is but nature of his own 'fate'," Citan says, shaking his head. "Those who become close to him cannot help but become entangled in his."
For there is no escaping what itself traces back to the origin point, that moment when 'God' and 'Man' first became two distinct entities.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Something else on his mind... That's always Citan though, isn't it? Even if she can guess at what he might be thinking, in this case, from that very same reaction. Lily herself could perhaps be trusted with such technology--maybe. And if it were taken out of her hands, or fell into someone else's?
Maybe Colonel Keil's desired weapon would happen that way, too.
But the matter of Fei at least, "It could be. I suppose when it's put that way, it isn't so strange. I don't like 'fate' very much, but... It's something we have to deal with, with a friend like him." And she does still consider him a friend. Maybe that will be something that matters, in the future, too.
"Still. Since I can't focus on our Gears, care to help me with my teleportation research? It might be useful to us later, and if not, I at least think it's interesting."